Generations of Marines graduated boot camp with a litany of ditties and bits of jargon seared into their brain housing group — including “ditty” and “brain housing group” — but few were as memorable as “JJ DID TIE BUCKLE.”
The saying refers to the Marine Corps’ 14 leadership traits: judgment, justice, decisiveness, integrity, dependability, tact, initiative, enthusiasm, bearing, unselfishness, courage, knowledge, loyalty and endurance. However, with the addition of another trait — empathy — it looks like “JJ” will be tying “BUCKLEE.”
The change was noted on X, along with a screenshot from the service’s Sustaining the Transformation guidance, which was published on Aug. 16. Additionally, the service’s Leading Marines publication, which was published on Aug. 13, included the change.
“The modifications to both ‘Leading Marines’ and ‘Sustaining the Transformation’ publications are not ground-breaking updates,” Lt. Col. Joshua C. Benson, a spokesman for Headquarters Marine Corps, told Task & Purpose. “These documents focus on our number one asset — the people. Putting words like teamwork, empathy, and even love in these publications might seem revolutionary, but they are things Marines have been doing for one another for 249 years. They have always been part of the Marine Corps and our culture.”
Marine Corps image.
“Just as it states in ‘Leading Marines,’ good leaders must have a genuine interest in the lives of their Marines, the challenges they face, and their overall well-being,” Benson said. “Empathy has been a leadership trait of successful Marine leaders for 249 years; we put it on paper and added it to our list.”
The question of whether empathy — which refers to the ability to understand the experiences and emotions of another person — should be formally adopted as a leadership trait dates back years.
In 2020, the Marine Corps University published a paper on the findings of the Marine Corps Organizational Culture Research Project, which looked specifically at empathy as a leadership trait. According to the paper, “some Marines think empathy should be an organizational value, perhaps even finding its own place in the leadership acronym JJ DID TIE BUCKLE.”
The paper goes on to include feedback from Marines, including a major at Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center Twentynine Palms, California, who was interviewed in 2017, and who talked about adjusting the 14 leadership traits to include empathy, but did so in the most Marine way possible:
“I would take out one of those Es and add empathy,” the major said, according to the report. “Empathy is a thing that allows you to see things from other people’s perspectives. It’s not a touchy-feely thing where we have to give a shit about people’s feelings and hug them and make sure they don’t ever get hurt.”
Seeing as “JJ DID TIE BUCKLEE” is here to stay, there’s a good chance that a fair number of lance corporals and below are going to spend the foreseeable future adding an extra “E” to every leadership trait poster, plaque and sign across the Corps.